Schuster's, officially Ed. Schuster & Co., was a department store chain, founded in 1883, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and it is now defunct. [1] [2]
Schuster's opted for several neighborhood stores over a single downtown location, [3] and Schuster's locations included 2151 N. Third St. (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive), 12th and Vliet streets and 11th and Mitchell streets, [4] Packard Plaza and Capitol Court. [5] Kirchhoff & Rose. [4] designed the Third Street store. Gimbels bought Schuster's in 1962 and operated as Gimbels-Schuster's until 1969. [4] Golda Meir worked at Schuster's after graduating from high school in 1915 and before moving to Palestine in 1921. [6] [7]
Schuster's notable marketing efforts included the first trading stamps, in 1891, [8] an early version of the charge card called Budga-Plate, a doll named Billie the Brownie from 1927 to 1955, [9] [10] Schuster's Christmas Parade, [5] and the catch-phrase "Let's go by Schuster's where the streetcar bends the corner round." [7]
An unrelated group of furniture stores in Arkansas, also carrying the Schuster's name, operated for many years, with locations in Little Rock and North Little Rock, as well as a Pine Bluff store that eventually transferred briefly to Conway. [11]
There was also a restaurant called Schuster's House of Fine Foods located in Greenville, PA, between circa 1930 and circa 1945. [12]
Golda Meir was an Israeli politician, teacher, and kibbutznikit who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of state, the first female head of state in the Middle East, and the fourth elected female head of state in the world. Meir also served as labor minister and foreign minister.
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wisconsin System. It is also one of the two doctoral degree-granting public universities and the second largest university in Wisconsin.
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Gimbel Brothers was an American department store corporation that operated for over a century, from 1842 until 1987. Gimbel patriarch Adam Gimbel opened his first store in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1842. In 1887, the company moved its operations to the Gimbel Brothers Department Store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It became a chain when it opened a second, larger store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1894, moving its headquarters there. At the urging of future company president Bernard Gimbel, grandson of the founder, the company expanded to New York City in 1910.
Kaufmann's was a department store that originated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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The Golda Meir School for gifted and talented students is a Milwaukee Public Schools district elementary, middle, and high school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The school offers classes for students in grades three through twelve.
Hilldale Shopping Center, or simply Hilldale, is a partially enclosed shopping mall/lifestyle center development on the west side of Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Originally opened in October 1962, Hilldale has four anchor stores - Macy's, Target, Metcalfe's Market, and the AMC Dine-In Madison 6 movie theater - as well as over 40 specialty stores as of May 2018.
Wisconsin State College of Milwaukee was a predecessor institution of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Henry C. Koch was a German-American architect based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Adam Gimbel (1817–1896) was the founder of the Gimbel Brothers Company.
Bernard Feustman Gimbel was an American businessman and president of the Gimbels department store.
Three Bronze Discs is a piece of public artwork by American artist James Wines located in the courtyard of the Golda Meir Library, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Made of bronze, the sculpture is three circular bronze discs located in a pool of water. It is 10 feet by 8 feet and 5 feet in diameter.
John J. Polakowski was a retail clerk, dispatcher and real estate broker from Milwaukee who served one term (1923–1924) as a Socialist member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the 8th Milwaukee County district. He was the brother of Walter Polakowski.
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries Digital Collections was established in 2001 to provide remote (online) access to the library's unique resources. It serves the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee academic community as well as the general public.
Michael Lisicky is an American non-fiction writer, journalist, and oboist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. As a department store historian, Lisicky has given lectures at the New York Public Library, Boston Public Library, Free Library of Philadelphia, Enoch Pratt Free Library, DC Public Library, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and at New York Fashion Week. He has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning and his works have appeared in such publications as The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Globe, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He has contributed to newspaper articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Southern Living, and Fortune magazine and served as a historical consultant for the Oscar-nominated movie Carol.
This postcard (c. 1908) shows one of Schuster's horse-drawn delivery wagons.
The planned redevelopment of the former flagship of the Schuster's department store chain, 2153 N. King Drive, has been granted $7.9 million in state historic preservation tax credits.
Business was strong enough that Schuster's paid a whopping $140,000 to erect the current Kirchoff & Rose building two decades later further up 3rd Street.
Their greatest success was Billie the Brownie and the Schuster's Christmas Parade.
During her youthful Milwaukee years, she worked for some of the city's signature institutions, including the famed Schuster's department store.
Schuster's Department Store (once-familiar Milwaukee-ese, "Let's go by Schuster's where the streetcar bends the corner round")
They were first issued in 1891 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by Schuster's Department Store.
Innovative Schuster's Department store of Retro Milwaukee, pioneers in adopting 'trading stamps' in 1891 and an early version of the charge card, the 'Budga-Plate'.
But there was no tradition that could match Billie the Brownie. Billie was the creation of Schuster's Department Store.